Tag Archives: pioneer

According to our laws of physics the answer is no. But the question for space travellers is how near the speed of light [c] can we get?

Light travels at 300,000 [approx] kilometres per second [186,000 miles per second]. When we look at our sun, not directly of course, we are seeing it as it was 8 minutes and 19 seconds ago. That is the time for light to travel 150 million kilometres [93 million miles].

Stars and galaxies are so far away that we express their distances in light years – the distance light travels in 1 year – 10 trillion kilometres [approx] – an unimaginable distance.

Thus our nearest star is 4.2 light years away, our nearest galaxy 25,000 light years away and the Andromeda galaxy is a staggering 2.5 million light years away.

For man only stars up to 10 light years away are potentially reachable. But to do this we need to travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light, say between 0.1 and 0.5c and this would equate to a journey time of 100 and 20 years respectively.

In my view a journey time between 20 and 40 years is the optimum that human beings could tolerate – assuming we can crack hibernation [which I’ll talk about in a later Blog]. Therefore we would need to develop technology to propel a starship at between a quarter and half the speed of light. But can we do this?

I will discuss the technology for achieving these speeds in my next Blog – but you might like to see how I achieve a journey to a star 10 light years away in my sci-fi trilogy – Quest of the Dicepterons.

Watch my video trailer to see the event in 1972 that seeded my story.

Follow the link below to my website for options to obtain e-books and paperbacks.

Some time in the very distant future we will have to colonise other planets in this solar system or at nearby stars. Our planet will become totally over-populated. But before then we might destroy it, either environmentally or through warfare. Further, we could be impacted by an asteroid causing a life extinction similar to the dinosaurs. Finally we could be invaded by an alien force – after all we have sent probes to the stars with our address on them!!

SO HOW CAN WE GET THERE?

There are a number of milestones and challenges for mankind if we are to contemplate travelling to our nearest stars, 5-20 light years away.

We must first establish a large moon-base towards mid/end of this century. This is feasible because we have discovered vast amounts of ice at the poles giving us water to drink, oxygen to breathe and hydrogen for power. Structurally, moon-base would look like a huge Eden Project with specially designed plastic interlocking blocks to resist the vacuum.

Then in the early 22nd century we would have a base on Mars. This would be the nerve centre for a star mission and a suitable starship would be constructed in weightless orbit around the planet. Our mission would launch from here and use the huge gravitational pull of Jupiter to accelerate our craft.

Now there are 3 key technical challenges for us to solve over the next century to make a mission lasting 20 years feasible. Firstly, we have to be able to travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light and secondly we have to develop technology for extended human hibernation by cryo or other techniques. Thirdly, and absolutely vital, we must develop artificial intelligence – computers so powerful and reliable that we can trust them to look after a starship with its precious cargo of hibernating humans throughout a 20 year voyage. I will talk in more detail about each of these in my next few posts.

WHEN CAN MANKIND REACH THE NEAREST STARS?

To answer my question – I think in about 150 year’s time but I would be fascinated to hear your views.

I have visualised such a journey to the stars in my scifi trilogy – The Quest of the Dicepterons – a fast moving adventure through space and time. Here I have imagined life elsewhere in the Universe, but I have also asked the question – “What if there is something else out there?” And we go and wake it up!

Our sun is one of over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the universe which was formed about 4.5 billion years ago.

Life on Earth has existed for many hundreds of millions of years and in our humanoid form, for only the last 10,000.

It is the author’s belief that considering the vastness of space and the sheer numbers of stars, it is highly probable we are not alone and that parallel or very different life forms have evolved elsewhere. Within our solar system they will certainly be far more primitive than us but as we move out to the stars the chances of life comparable or more advanced increase.

Our nearest star is Proximo Centuari about 5 light years away and at 8.3 light years distant is Lalande 21185 in the constellation Ursa Major. This latter star has two confirmed planets in orbit which are gas giants like Jupiter.

EXCITING NEW DISCOVERIES

During the last five years, the number of identified stars with planets has grown dramatically. The latest count [25/12/17] is 3572 exoplanets with 53 earth-like worlds.

The most exciting find recently is Trappist-1, a dwarf red star 39 light years away. A huddle of seven worlds, all close in size to Earth, and perhaps warm enough for water and the life it can sustain, has been spotted around this faint star in the constellation of Aquarius.

Surely now it is only a matter of time before we find the perfect ‘Earth-like’ candidate and identify the all important chemical building blocks for life?

IMAGINE LIFE ELSEWHERE?

But what if something finds us first? Or maybe it already has and we are unaware of it?!

In other galaxies, where conditions could be very different from the Milky Way, who knows what kind of beings may have evolved and what level of intelligence they have achieved?

ENTER THE DICEPTERONS

Watch my trailer and see what inspired me to write a scifi trilogy about life elsewhere in the Universe.

Follow the link below to find out more, perhaps read the start of my stories and maybe get your own copies which are available in e-book and paperback.

According to our laws of physics the answer is no. But the question for space travellers is how near the speed of light [c] we can get?

Light travels at 300,000 [approx] kilometres per second [186,000 miles per second]. When we look at our sun, not directly of course, we are seeing it as it was 8 minutes and 19 seconds ago. That is the time for light to travel 150 million kilometres [93 million miles].

Stars and galaxies are so far away that we express their distances in light years – the distance light travels in 1 year – 10 trillion kilometres [approx] – an unimaginable distance.

Thus our nearest star is 4.2 light years away, our nearest galaxy 25,000 light years away and the Andromeda galaxy is a staggering 2.5 million light years away.

For man only stars up to 10 light years away are potentially reachable. But to do this we need to travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light, say between 0.1 and 0.5c and this would equate to a journey time of 100 and 20 years respectively.

In my view a journey time between 20 and 40 years is the optimum that human beings could tolerate – assuming we can crack hibernation [which I’ll talk about in a later Blog]. Therefore we would need to develop technology to propel a starship at between a quarter and half the speed of light. But can we do this?

I will discuss the technology for achieving these speeds in my next Blog – but you might like to see how I achieve a journey to a star 10 light years away in The Blue People of Cloud Planet.

There are a number of milestones and challenges for mankind if we are to contemplate travelling to our nearest stars, 5-20 light years away.

We must first establish a large moon-base towards mid/end of this century. This is feasible because we have discovered vast amounts of ice at the poles giving us water to drink, oxygen to breathe and hydrogen for power. Structurally, moon-base would look like a huge Eden Project with specially designed plastic interlocking blocks to resist the vacuum.

Then in the early 22nd century we would have a base on Mars. This would be the nerve centre for a star mission and a suitable starship would be constructed in weightless orbit around the planet. Our mission would launch from here and use the huge gravitational pull of Jupiter to accelerate our craft.

Now there are 3 key technical challenges for us to solve over the next century to make a mission lasting 20 years feasible. Firstly, we have to be able to travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light and secondly we have to develop technology for extended human hibernation by cryo or other techniques. Thirdly, and absolutely vital, we must develop artificial intelligence – computers so powerful and reliable that we can trust them to look after a starship with its precious cargo of hibernating humans throughout a 20 year voyage. I will talk in more detail about each of these in my next few posts.

To answer my question – I think in about 150 year’s time but I would be fascinated to hear your views.

I have visualised such a journey to the stars in my book – The Blue People of Cloud Planet- available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle [eleven 5* reviews] and now available in paperback from Feedaread.

Our sun is one of over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the universe which was formed about 4.5 billion years ago.

Life on Earth has existed for many hundreds of millions of years and in our humanoid form, for only the last 10,000.

It is the author’s belief that considering the vastness of space and the sheer numbers of stars, it is highly probable we are not alone and that parallel or very different life forms have evolved elsewhere. Within our solar system they will certainly be far more primitive than us but as we move out to the stars the chances of life comparable or more advanced increase.

Our nearest star is Proximo Centuari about 5 light years away and at 8.3 light years distant is Lalande 21185 in the constellation Ursa Major. This latter star has two confirmed planets in orbit which are gas giants like Jupiter. It is only a matter of time before we find a star in the Milky Way with an earth size planet orbiting at a distance where heat, light, water and oxygen are optimal for life to evolve, possibly similar to our own. We are already identifying hundreds of stars with planets orbiting them and some of these are in the habitable zone [see later post].

There are wonderful sights in space. Just look at this video of The Monkey Head nebula. This immense mass of gas and dust is a factory for birthing new stars. Amazing!

However, in other galaxies, where conditions could be very different from the Milky Way, who knows what kind of beings may have evolved and what level of intelligence they have achieved? Enter the Dicepterons.

The Blue People of Cloud Planet is about one fictitious star in our galaxy called Seren which is 10 light years from Earth. This star has an orbiting planetary system including an optimally positioned world called Cloud Planet. What kind of life might have evolved here?